Cline Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives

What is Cline?

Cline is an open source AI coding agent that works in your editor, terminal and browser. It reads your project, proposes a plan, edits files, runs commands and checks the results, asking for your approval at each step unless you allow it to act on its own. It runs as a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin, a desktop app, a CLI and an SDK.

Cline began in 2024 as Claude Dev, a VS Code extension by Saoud Rizwan, and was renamed Cline. In 2026 it shipped Cline CLI 2.0 with parallel and headless agents, the Cline SDK, ClinePass, a $9.99 monthly subscription for open-weight coding models, and a Cline Desktop app. Its site shows close to 70,000 GitHub stars under the Apache 2.0 licence.

Cline’s approach is transparency and choice. There is no required subscription: you bring your own API keys or buy inference at cost through Cline, and you can see every step and token spent. Plan and Act modes separate thinking from doing, and checkpoints let you roll back changes, which suits developers who want control over what the agent does.

Key features of Cline

• Plan and Act modesDiscuss and refine a plan first, then switch to Act mode so Cline carries it out with your approval.
• File edits with checkpointsCline edits multiple files, watches linter and compiler errors, and saves checkpoints so you can undo changes.
• Terminal and browser useRuns commands, reacts to their output and can open a browser to test web apps.
• Any modelWorks with Claude, GPT, Gemini, local models through Ollama and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
• MCP integrationAdd tools and data sources through Model Context Protocol servers, including from an MCP marketplace.
• Rules, skills and CLIRepository rules files set coding standards, and the CLI runs agents in parallel or in CI pipelines.

Who is Cline best for?

• Developers who want control because every step is visible and needs approval unless you choose otherwise.
• Cost-conscious users who prefer paying model providers directly or using cheaper open-weight models.
• Privacy-focused teams since the client-side design lets you keep code on your machine and use your own or local models.
• Tool builders who can embed the agent in their own products using the Cline SDK.

Popular ways to use Cline

• Feature building: plan a new feature with Cline, then let it implement and test the change.
• Refactoring: update patterns across many files while checkpoints protect against mistakes.
• Bug fixing: have Cline run the failing test, read the error and propose a fix.
• CI automation: run the Cline CLI headless in pipelines for repeatable tasks.
• Local AI coding: pair Cline with a local model through Ollama for offline or private work.

Cline pricing (October 2026)

With the free version you pay only for model usage, either to your provider directly or through Cline’s pay-as-you-go credits. Costs depend heavily on the model and task size, so set spend limits in the app.

Cline pros and cons

How to get started with Cline

1. Install Cline from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX, or download the CLI or desktop app.
2. Add an API key or sign in to use Cline’s pay-as-you-go provider.
3. Start in Plan mode and describe your task clearly.
4. Review the plan, switch to Act mode and approve each step.
5. Set a spend limit and add a rules file for your project.

Tips to get better results from Cline

• Use Plan mode for anything larger than a one-file change; it saves tokens and rework.
• Keep auto-approve off for terminal commands until you trust a workflow.
• Try cheaper or open-weight models for routine tasks and frontier models for hard ones.
• Commit before long agent runs so you have a clean restore point.

Cline vs alternatives

Cursor bundles its agent into a subscription editor, which is simpler but less flexible on models and costs. GitHub Copilot offers an agent mode inside a flat monthly plan, while Cline charges only for the tokens you use.

Terminal agents such as Claude Code and OpenAI Codex are tied to their makers’ models, whereas Cline is model-agnostic. For a review layer on top of Cline’s output, consider CodeRabbit. See all best AI coding tools.

Our verdict: is Cline worth it?

Cline FAQs

Pricing and features change often. Details on this page were last reviewed in October 2026. Always confirm current plans on the official Cline website.